Publication:

To study the factors responsible for causing complications of arteriovenous fistula surgery: a retrospective observational study

Background To study the pre-operative and intra-operative factors responsible for complications of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) surgery.

Methods A retrospective analysis of prospectively maintained database of AVF’s created from January 2016 to October 2018 was carried out to look for the post-operative complications. Chi- square test or fisher’s exact test was applied to assess any association between pre-operative and intra-operative factors versus various complications.

Results During the 2-year study period, 549 AVF were created including revision AVF surgeries. There were 306/435 (70.3%) men and the mean age of study population was 41.14 years. The number patients with hypertension, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and congestive cardiac failure was 381/435(87.6%), 86/435 (19.8%), 36/435 (8.3%) and 8/435 (1.8%) respectively. 280/435 (64.3%) patients had undergone radiocephalic AVF. The primary failure rate was 19.3%. The other postoperative complications were postoperative bleed in 3.9%, thrombosis in 13.8%, pseudo aneurysm in 2.8%, dilated collateral veins in 1.1%, surgical site edema in 4.8% and surgical site infection in 6%. Pseudo aneurysm occurred in 7 women and 5 men; further, it was found to be statistically significant (P=0.048).

Conclusions In present study population, the rate of postoperative complication following an AVF surgery was 32.4% and the females were significantly associated with pseudo aneurysms when compared to men.